“You have a friend for life,” former NBA star Dennis Rodman told Kim Jong-un, the leader of the Stalinist and reclusive North Korea, capping a strange trip that managed to completely gloss over the plight of the North Korean people.
Rodman spent the last several days in North Korea along with a crew from VICE and three members of the Harlem Globetrotters to film an episode of a forthcoming HBO series and take part in what VICE dubbed “basketball diplomacy.” While Rodman has been known for pulling crazy stunts during and after his time on the basketball court, a visit to the most reclusive country on Earth was unexpected. The trip had more than a tinge of the ludicrous from the beginning, with Rodman tweeting out his arrival to confusion from the masses: